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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What simile is used to describe Salvatore's hands when he is not bathing his children?
(a) Like loaves of bread.
(b) Like clouds.
(c) Like bricks.
(d) Like legs of mutton.

2. How did Salvatore's family learn his fiancé was not going to marry him before he did?
(a) She told them.
(b) Her father told them.
(c) Her new husband told them.
(d) Her mother told them.

3. With whom did Salvatore fish with on his boat in the evenings during fishing season?
(a) His parents.
(b) One of his brothers.
(c) Assunta.
(d) His sons.

4. Who does Salvatore cry to when he returns home after learning he is not to be married to the girl he loved?
(a) His father.
(b) His mother.
(c) His best friend.
(d) His brother.

5. How is Assunta described physically?
(a) Heavy-set but jolly.
(b) Unkempt and scraggly.
(c) Unattractive and old-looking.
(d) Beautiful and delicate featured.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Salvatore do for work when he was not fishing after he married and had children?

2. Whom did Assunta have "nothing but harsh words for" (7)?

3. What simile is used to describe Salvatore's hands while he bathes his children?

4. Why does Salvatore's fiancé say she can no longer marry him?

5. What would Salvatore do when his rheumatism made it impossible for him to work?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Salvatore do for work after he and Assunta married?

2. How is Assunta described after she and Salvatore marry? What does she look like? What type of person is she?

3. What happened to Assunta's fiancé?

4. Why does Salvatore understand that the girl he loves will not marry him?

5. Though Salvatore found Assunta physically unattractive, what could she offer him if they married?

6. What would Salvatore do if his rheumatism became too bad for him to work?

7. How did Salvatore's family learn he was not going to marry the girl he loved?

8. Describe Salvatore washing his babies near the end of the story?

9. What does the narrator say he set out to do in the story?

10. What did Salvatore's fiancé tell him "with the blunt directness of her race" (5) when he went to see her at her home after he returned rom military service?

(see the answer keys)

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